Helping you get your shit together

I’m not good enough

How many times have you decided that you weren’t good enough at a particular skill and then stopped doing what ever it was? Perhaps it more generalized, for example, “I’m not good a math.” Or even, “Girls aren’t good at math.” Then you used those comments as an excuse to stop doing something challenging.

I was speaking with a client recently who enjoyed writing but had a serious block on finishing his stories and articles. He felt that he wasn’t good enough of a writer. He’d come up with great topics. He’d start amazing but as soon as his article started to take shape, he’d abandon it.

There are two things you must realize. First, the feeling of “not good enough” is frequently fear and is used as an excuse to get out of working toward our goals. The fear is frequently of confirming that you actually aren’t good enough. Therefore, you don’t finish the task, so there is no proof of your skill level.

The second thing to realize is that by doing a task, you get better at it. It is been proven repeatedly in clinical studies that anyone can learn new skills with practice, regardless of age, and learning difficult skills actually improves overall mental ability. This means that there is no, “I’m not good enough.” There is only, “I am good enough,” “I’m not good enough yet but I’m learning with every effort,” and “I’m not good enough yet and I’ve decided to not put in the effort required to get good enough.”

It is ok if you decide to not put the effort in to master the skill but make that decision. Don’t decide out of fear.

2 thoughts on “I’m not good enough”

Nice post! So many times we use excuses rather than simply trying. Why try if we might fail? The problem with that logic is: people learn most from failure, not success. Learning to pick yourself up and try again, regardless of the circumstances, is a life lesson that each of us need to have etched into our brains.